Jason Chimera looking forward to Columbus return

The Caps had a very optional practice this morning at KCI before boarding a charter flight to Columbus for their second to last road game of the regular season.

While the contest is important for a Caps team that's slowly trying to get into playoff mode, it's going to mean a lot more to Jason Chimera, who was dealt from the Blue Jackets to Washington on Dec. 28.

The other players involved in the swap, Chris Clark and Milan Jurcina, will not play at Nationwide Arena. Clark is out for the remainder of the season with a knee injury and Jurcina, who was dealt back to the Caps at the deadline, has been sidelined since having sports hernia surgery last month.

As for Chimera (he'll be the subject of my story for tomorrow's Post), he's become one of the Caps' more important role players. He's big, fast, feisty, can play on the third or fourth lines and has points in three of the past four games.

While Chimera's numbers in Columbus vs. Washington are comparable -- he had 8 goals and 9 assists in 39 games with the Blue Jackets and has 6 goals and 10 assists in 34 games with the Caps -- it's important to note that he averaged 14:46 in Columbus and is getting only 12:30 here.

Look for more on Chimera on the web tonight. In the meantime, I'll be working on the story and writing up another blog post with some injury news and comments from Coach Bruce Boudreau on the goalie situation.